I don't think I would be living this traveling life if I hadn't met Steve and Kathy Addington many many years ago. When we first met they told us of their life of travel and opened my eyes to a new way to live and explore this world. They are Greta's godparents and it was a great loss of this world when Steve died of a brain glioma. Kathy just texted me that they visited Patzcuaro too and Steve called it Pat Squirrel. Which brings me to my sister, Pat, who also visited this part of the world and helped us make our travel plans. We are all indeed connected.
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| Hot spring fed pool at campground. |
Our first night enroute to Patzquaro we camped in Villa Corona at a cool hot springs campground. Each night they empty the big pools and then fill them after cleaning. We discovered that the pools were full by early morning, so I was able to soak before we hit the road.
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| Strawberry fields forever.... |
It seems like each campground has a wise sage. At Parque Aquatiko in Villa Corona it was George who had traveled to Patzcuaro for 15 years and is sort of a fixture here in Patzcuaro. He gave us driving directions for the scenic route and a note for some other campers at our destinations. The drive was only a bit over 200 miles but was windy, hilly, and sinouso, and ..7 hours...but lovely.
We passed through busy and colorful villages along Lake Chapala and miles of strawberry fields and raspberry fields. Let's hope that Agent Orange (a name for our new presidente whom I refuse to name) does not go through with a tariff on goods from Mexico. Think of what it would do to our raspberry, strawberry and (gasp) avocado consumption!
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| Where we are...Jeez, we're 2/3 of the way south in Mexico!! |
Villa Patzcuaro is a lovely campground. It is grassy, full of flowers, grass,birds and a swimming pool even. And it is quiet! (and cheap) We love it here. We had a few life topos (speed bumps) since we arrived. First our toilet poop grinder broke...I walked to buy new fuses (8 for 9 pesos) which didn't do the trick..then walked to mechanic who said he didn't repair RV stuff. I think my Spanish went like this..."Hello...good day, we have a camper car which has a toilet which has a pump which has much paper in it. It will not go and can you look at it please?" I guess I got my point across.
The main problem is that someone has to crawl under the car and release the sewage manually..which could be a big mess as you can imagine. So we next called a plumber who also crawled under the rig and said he could not fix it. Our next resort is pump mechanic tomorrow. I also discovered an RV repair man in Mazatlan if nothing else works.
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| Tomas and the mechanic...muchos problemos! Amiga Maureen from Boise translated for us via the telephone. |
Tommy had an upset tummy too...so we stayed close to home the first day. That was not so bad since there are such interesting folks here. We became friends with a Dutch couple who traveled from Europe to Halifax, then to Alaska and then down coast to Mexico. They have been traveling 8 months so far. They were the best dressed campers I have ever seen and most organized. They had a huge pot and canned 60 meals at a time and so had food for 60 dinners (5 different dishes) They had a high fat diet and were pretty zealous about what they ate. (no potato chips even!)
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| What a rig! This is a German made vehicle...has traveled the world for 10 years now... They get the clean campsite award. (and weirdest RV) |
Another interesting couple is from Germany who have been traveling in this huge rig for 10 years!! We plan on having a beer with them this evening and hearing about their travels. I've never seen a rig like that. He did suggest we put chemicals down the toilet and we just dumped baking soda (Royal in Espanol) and vinegar.,.will see if that loosens things up.
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| Mercado |
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| Bliss!! |
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| Two of these containers for 20 pesos (1$) |
We finally ventured into Patzcuaro...What a great town. We took a combi into town and walked around the market and bought veggies and strawberries...for so little money we felt guilty. Later, we had a coffee, walked to the main cathedral and had quesadilla outside. My favorite shrimp cocktail cart was operating so I had a shrimp cocktail. The town is lively, colorful and has nice colonial buildings.
It has been a lovely day.
It was also laundry day here for us...we hand wash because the laundries here use really scented soap and I cannot handle it. Pat brought us down some unscented soap. It was actually fun hand washing our clothes.
Today, as we had coffee we outlined our next few weeks... I could stay here a month I think but we will head out on Wednesday. Until then we want to visit villages around the lake and a few ruins. Since we have Ruthie here with us we try to just be gone only a few hours. She is great just hanging out in the van with her bone and bed.
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| Ruthie loves travel...the only thing she hates is all the fireworks here. She spends lots of time under the van or under the bed. |
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| Cannot resist buying treasures like this vase. Coffee good too. |
1 comment:
Love reading your blog Pam and living vicariously through your adventures! I too was influenced by Steve and Kathy Addington's travels.
Good luck getting your potty grinder working again.
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